And thus it came to pass. For the men-at-arms shut up in the town besought the King to open the gates forthwith or they would break them down. The gates were opened and all the fighting men hastened to the Maid, heedless of the King, who threw on his cloak and followed them.
On that day a great number of the English were slain.[1575]
Such is the story which gives a very inaccurate representation of what happened at Orléans on the 6th of May. The citizens hastened in crowds to the Burgundian Gate, resolved to cross the Loire and attack Les Tourelles. Finding the gate closed, they threw themselves furiously on the Sire de Gaucourt who was keeping it. The aged baron had the gate opened wide and said to them, "Come, I will be your captain."[1576] In the story the citizens have become men-at-arms, and it is not the Sire de Gaucourt but the King who maliciously closes the gates. But the King gained nothing by it; and it is astonishing to find that so early there had grown up in the minds of the people the idea that, far from aiding the Maid to drive out the English, the King had put obstacles in her way and was always the last to follow her.
Seen through this chaos of stories more indistinct than the clouds in a stormy sky, Jeanne appeared a wondrous marvel. She prophesied and many of her prophecies had already been fulfilled. She had foretold the deliverance of Orléans and Orléans had been delivered. She had prophesied that she would be wounded, and an arrow had pierced her above the right breast. She had prophesied that she would take the King to Reims, and the King had been crowned in that city. Other prophecies had she uttered touching the realm of France, to wit, the deliverance of the Duke of Orléans, the entering into Paris, the driving of the English from the holy kingdom, and their fulfilment was expected.[1577]
Every day she prophesied and notably concerning divers persons who had failed in respect towards her and had come to a bad end.[1578]
At Chinon, when she was being taken to the King, a man-at-arms who was riding near the château, thinking he recognised her, asked, "Is not that the Maid? By God, an I had my way she should not be a maid long."
Then Jeanne prophesied and said "Ha, thou takest God's name in vain, and thou art so near thy death!"
Less than an hour later the man fell into the water and was drowned.[1579]
Straightway this miracle was related in Latin verse. In the poem which records this miraculous history of Jeanne up to the deliverance of Orléans, the lewd blasphemer, who like all blasphemers, came to a bad end, is noble and by name Furtivolus.[1580]